Gabriella Ch. 01

He could see her body stiffen taking in this intimate moment with he and Patricia. But the mask came back up and she looked away from him and opened the refrigerator. She bent over, reaching for something on the bottom shelf of the fridge and his cock stirred in his pants. She knew exactly what she did to him. How his body responded to her constant teasing. She pulled out a carton of milk and faced him again as she slammed the door shut. She shook it as she stared at him and continued to sing. "Why are you so far away she said, why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you, I'm in love with you."

And that was his life. Patricia in his arms with Gabriella always in sight. Always fucking with his head. Her eyes were piercing his, half angry, half hurt but full of lust. He knew that if he ever felt more for Gabriella than just sex, he could never admit it to anyone. But every day they were together, it was harder and harder for him to convince himself that this thing with her was strictly sex. Deep down, further than he had ever wanted to explore, he knew this girl did something to his heart. But there could never be anything romantic between them. It wasn't a possibility, even if his heart fluttered when she touched him.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Patricia turned releasing him and greeting her daughter.

Simon exhaled, not realizing he had been holding his breath.

As usual, she ignored her mother. It's shit like that which got under his skin. And Patricia always let her get away with it. Usually some lame excuse to why she was allowed to talk back to her mother, lie and on one occasion, he even caught her stealing from her mother's purse.

And what does Patricia do? She made excuses for her.

"Her father has never really been in her life and things weren't the best for us when she was growing up," Patricia would explain whenever he tried to scold the temptress. He tried to see if from his wife's point of view. And she had been neglected from her father, Rodney, and for that Simon hated him. He imagined what kind of girl Gabriella could have been, had it not been for her fuck up father. Simon had wanted to kick his ass back then because of Patricia and now because of Gabriella. Even though Simon was a bit of an academic and stood only six foot two to Rodney's six-six, he wasn't above stomping the shit out of someone who he thought deserved it. He was definitely not a push over, courtesy of his father, who had been a respected New York police officer by day, abusive tyrant by night. Defending your mom against several blows on a weekly basis could teach one to fight. Or at least be able to take a hit and no longer cry if it hurt.

Hitting the books had nothing to do with wanting to be a nerd or know it all...it had been out of necessity. He knew he wanted to get the hell out of his dad's house the first chance he got and even though he was good, he knew there was no football or baseball scholarship waiting for him. If he wanted to get out, he had to make it through his grades, which drastically improved when he realized this in the seventh grade.

And it wasn't that he disliked Rodney. He was nice and even on occasion when they ran into each other, he was always friendly to Simon. But he was so fucking spacey and would leave for large periods of time, including years, then just pop up like nothing was wrong. Gabriella rarely ever talked about him and said she didn't care that he wasn't present in their lives. But Simon knew better. He knew what it was like to want to love your fuck-up of a parent. It wasn't easy and caused resentment to fester inside you and eat at your soul.

But today was a new day. Normally, with such a rude introduction to her mother, Simon would have engaged in some sort of verbal combat with Gabriella, but today he would try a more civil approach, although nothing ever worked.

"Your mother said, 'good morning' to you. Might want to return the kind words," Simon stated, blowing his coffee which was already lukewarm.

"And you might want to stay out of my life," she answered back, not even bothering to look at him as she poured milk into her cereal.

"Don't start." Patricia looked at him with pleading eyes. Simon knew it was useless, especially since he was in this fight alone, but he just couldn't let shit like that drop. That's why she did the things she did, because no one called her on it.

"Grow up, Gabriella. The world doesn't owe you anything." He dumped his coffee in the sink.

Patricia sighed and sat down next to Gabriella. She tried to run her hand over her hair, but she moved away from her mother's touch. He just didn't understand it. His own guilt made him want to treat Patricia like a queen, yet Gabriella felt contempt for her.

"Screw you. It's too early in the morning for this shit," she mumbled, standing up from the table.

"Put your bowl in the sink," Simon said.

"You put it in the sink," she shot back over her shoulder as she walked out.

"Its fine, Simon, I got it," Patricia said.

"Patricia, Jesus, stop honey," he said completely exasperated. "You have to quit letting her get away with every little thing."

"It's just a bowl. It's not worth World War III, okay."

"It's the principle of the matter," he said, completely at a lost. He was fighting a losing battle and he knew it.

Patricia grabbed the bowl and placed it in the sink. She gave him a tentative peck on the lips and walked out. Simon stood there shaking his head. He leaned against the counter for a few more minutes, trying to calm his temper. He heard Patricia call out to him that she was leaving and he heard the front door closed. He waited a few more minutes until her car pulled out of the driveway before he marched down the hallway to Gabriella's room.

Simon knew what he had to do. Something he should have done a year ago. He couldn't keep this up with her. He couldn't expect her to respect anything if he kept carrying on with her this way. It was hurting the both of them and maybe he could gain a little control back once it stopped. Because right now, he felt like she had the upper hand in their relationship or whatever it was. He had told himself today would be the day.

He didn't bother knocking, as he opened her door. He caught her as she was pulling her shirt over her black bra. She stopped and looked at him.

"Jesus, my mom just left and already you want it." She smiled up at him, but then it faded no doubt due to how he was looking at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Gabriella, it's over."

Her eyes narrowed as she bit her bottom lip.

"You've said that before."

"I know. But I mean it this time." He stared at her face as her eyes widened, hoping it was sinking in. Before she could say another word, he closed the door back and walked down the hallway praying that he could follow through on that statement. Patricia deserved better than this. Better than him. And from this day forward, he would make it up to her and be the man he was when he married her.

He sighed and picked up his briefcase when he heard her door open.

"Simon?" Her voice sounded so small and unsure.

He turned around to see her eyes full of hurt staring at him.

"I'll apologize to my mom. I just, um, I'm sorry," she whispered, as a tear rolled down her face.

And there it was. Forty seconds of resolve and a possible lifetime worth of happiness ruined by that look. He dropped his briefcase and walked toward her.

**********

Chapter 2 coming soon...

I hope you all enjoyed my latest story...and as you can see, it's very different than my last two. I realize it is a little darker and heavier in tone, but if you stick it with it, I think you will be entertained...or at least I hope. But I was so ready to write this particular story. I just want to thank my muse and best friend, Kaia B. (aka TangledinYou) for cheering me on when I took this step in another direction away from romance and reading many, many, many drafts of different stories and ideas I have had on everything. And for just being the most fucking awesome person ever...love you, K! And I'd like to thank August Bouvier, who after several drafts, still manages to be polite and fucking brilliant with her assessments. And another thanks to SecretFantasy for taking time out of her busy schedule to read my crap, um...I'll be sending your more. Thanks ladies!

And thanks for all of the emails of encouragement over the past few months, I promise you it kept me going. Check out my bio for any updates.

Soular